DAVID Nugent is set to miss Preston's trip to Queens Park Rangers tonight after limping out of Saturday's game with a knee injury.
His injury - the seriousness of which club doctors are still assessing - is set to leave the way open for on-loan striker Jemal Johnson to partner Patrick Agyemang up front tonight at Loftus Road.
Nugent's problem - described as a medial ligament injury - is his third setback of the season.
After contracting a skin condition from a mosquito bite, Nugent then was hit with the flu virus which swept Deepdale last month.
He completed the first half of Saturday's 2-1 win over Cardiff before being replaced by Johnson, who has two more games at North End - tonight's and Saturday's - before he is due to return to Rovers.
QPR will hope to make home advantage count as they try to overcome their defeat at Plymouth on Saturday.
Ian Holloway's side lost 3-1, and the manager admitted afterwards the performance he has seen was 'unacceptable'.
So far, November has been a bad month for the London side. After ending October with a win at Derby, they have lost to Watford, Reading and Plymouth and fallen into the bottom half of the league as a result.
Paul Furlong misses tonight's game as he ends a four match ban, while Marc Nygaard is subject to a late fitness test.
Youngsters Scott Donnelly and Shabazz Baidoo impressed at the weekend and are likely to start again - not least because Marc Bircham, Steve Lomas, Dean Sturridge and Matthew Rose are all still injured.
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